METHADONE CLINIC KEPT ON HOLD

EVERETT -- The city's first methadone clinic is now expected to open at the
end of the month, an official with the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration said Wednesday.

Therapeutic Health Services had planned to open the clinic at 9930
Evergreen Way in December, but the DEA still hadn't given its approval.

The agency's blessing is the last step before the clinic can open. The
agency checks to make sure such clinics have proper security to prevent
theft of the medication. Therapeutic Health Services already has received
state permits.

"I just don't know why they're dragging their feet," said Norman Johnson,
executive director of Therapeutic Health Services. "There are 100 people
who, at the moment the DEA stops dragging their feet, I can take off the
street and put into treatment."

Two DEA investigators inspected the clinic on Dec. 22, but Johnson said a
local DEA official told him Wednesday that they still hadn't completed
their report. DEA officials in Washington, D.C., will then review the
report and make a decision.

The new clinic will open within 48 hours of receiving DEA approval, Johnson
said.

"Everything is ready to go in Everett," he added.

Thomas O'Brien, a spokesman for the DEA's Seattle field office, said the
agency is following its normal procedures, but has been busier than usual
the past few weeks.

"I don't know of any problems with the application," O'Brien said.

Methadone is used to treat people addicted to opiate drugs, including
heroin and the painkiller OxyContin.

The 7,500-square-foot clinic will initially serve 100 people from Snohomish
County and is expected to reach its maximum capacity of 350 patients within
a few months, Johnson said.

Almost all of those first 100 patients currently use the group's Shoreline
clinic. The rest get their methadone in Seattle. The opening of the Everett
clinic will free up 100 spaces at the Shoreline and Seattle clinics for
clients from King County, Johnson said.

About 300 people are on waiting lists for the Shoreline and Seattle
clinics, and some have been calling Therapeutic Health Services regularly
to find out when they can start treatment, he said.

"They want treatment so much that they've been consistently calling to see
if the Everett clinic is open," Johnson said.

Therapeutic Health Services had hoped to open a clinic in downtown Everett
a year ago. But the City Council objected to the downtown site and
restricted new drug-treatment centers in the city to two commercial areas
south of Highway 526, the Boeing freeway.